Helm - a free polyphonic synth with lots of modulation

I was hoping to try Helm out under Arch Linux on my Banana Pi. I realise its only got a (dual-core) 1 Ghz ARMv7 CPU so I think I'll be lucky to get more than a couple of instances of Helm running on it, if that. It'd be cool if I can just use 1 instance of Helm as then I could then potentially use it as a live instrument. A more realistic ARM platform would be something like one of the 64 bit AArch64 Nvidia Shield devices - they compete quite well with i3 machines I believe.

I can probably (hopefully) just hack the current makefiles to remove the sse2 flags but if Helm can't get ARM NEON support any time soon then it would be nice if it could detect non-x86 CPUs and disable sse2 and any other x86-specific automatically.

Thanks!

On 1920x1080 displays using Linux, the helm gui appears to be very oversized (as if it were zoomed in) with the result that most of the parameters cannot be accessed.

It displays fine on another laptop with a different (lower) screen resolution which makes me wonder whether this is something to do with this specific resolution setting.

Using Helm v0.7.0 on OSX 10.11.5, in Bitwig Studio 1.3.9.

This is easy to reproduce: load the synth with whatever init patch, change OSC 1 to saw, drop Formant X to 0, map Mod Envelope to Formant X, increase amount to the right most of the way. Hold a whole note: observe the envelope jumps back to some random spot in the middle instead of behaving like a normal ADSR envelope, almost like there's a random pre-delay. It's a little sporadic, but seems to happen 80% of the time or more for me. Oddly, it seems that mapping to the Filter Envelope to the Cutoff in a similar manner (leaving the Env Amount at 0) has a similar behavior for the visual display but does not affect the sound audibly. Other mappings seem to have similar issues like OSC pitch, etc..

One other note: it seems after loading the 2nd preset and the 1st preset again, the issue is no longer present. Maybe it's something as simple as fixing the init values? I hope it could be fixed pretty easily. The init patch having this issue is a non-starter for using it with the One-Synth-Challenge -- which I hope, one day will happen -- because people have to design patches from scratch a considerable amount.

A synth typically sounds much bigger when it's not just the effects that make it stereo.

On the top of my list are: -stereo spread for unison, like ZynAddSubFX. -phase offset for LFOs: in many chorus plugins, you can set the phase offset between the LFO modulating the left signal, and the one modulating right. Combined with Helms flexible modulation options, this would lead to some awesome sound-design possibilities.

I realize this would probably double the dsp load, but IMHO that's worth it.

I don't have a reproducible recipe (yet), but I've noticed that sometimes after re-opening a .ardour file, the modulation destinations and amounts are not saved, so the patch comes up without modulation.

I'm using Mac OS X 10.5.7 on a refurbished Mac Pro, Cubase 7.5 and Helm 0.6.0 downloaded from the official site.

I tested aftertouch capabilities of my keyboard and NI Massive reacts as expected, but Helm seems to only get the first aftertouch message that comes after note on, then all the rest is ignored. No motion with aftertouch.

Can anybody confirm this behavior?

In i3, windows can be floating, and when they are, you can drag them around by pressing a modifier key. Helm simply ignores this. I've never seen another window do this in i3.

Possibly not an easy to implement feature but it would be nice to additionally have arbitrary waves for oscillators/LFOs. I guess something like libsamplerate or libresample could be used for the resampling.

I was recently doing some sound design thingies when I discovered that Massive has two filters. (Or, rather, I realized that this fact was actually quite important - more important than I had believed it to be before then.) I had already known for some time that Serum has lots of filter options. I thought that this feature was very useful, and so I wanted to suggest that multiple filters be added to Helm.

https://cloud.githubusercontent.com/assets/20910668/21546276/c1d22986-cdab-11e6-9ab8-48f2d7409490.png

Sorry if the picture looks a bit sloppy. :/

I suggest that the user is given the option to add as many "sub filters" as they need, that an "overall filter" is added so that the user can see what all of the sub filters add up to, and that the sub filters' influence on the overall filter can be modulated. It would also be absolutely incredible if sub filters could multiply, subtract, and divide each other instead of only being able to add to each other. To do this properly, the adding/subtracting/multiplying/dividing should be done in order from the first sub filter to the last filter. The order of the sub filters should be able to be changed very easily.

Automating parameters like arpeggio-frequency only works sometimes and is ignored most of the time. Since automating other plugins works, I assume it's an issue with Helm.

There's no obvious trigger, but it maybe have to do with initial playhead position and cycle-boundaries (rgareus's suggestion, I'm clueless in that regard).

I have a fairly minimal test session, but can't attach it here :/

Hi,

When using Helm 64bit in Cubase 8.0.10 64bit, on Windows 8.1 Pro, if I make a few changes (play with) the "A" attribute of the Amplitude Envelope, it often freezes the VST plugin and the whole of Cubase. I then have to End Task on Cubase.

Regards, Nikos

I was able to extract the Windows installer into a folder and run the executable to use Helm; while running the installer required admin rights which I do not have in my work computer.

Any chance that installation is made to not require admin rights?

Just applied a patch I got from rncbc (author of qtractor and other QT-based Linux audio applications) in the context of https://github.com/rncbc/qtractor/issues/357, who himself got it from some LA mailing list and suggested I'd just post it here.

Hi there,

Tried to use your plugin on Linux with Reaper. Whenever I first add it into a session it asks for Internet access. If I don't let it, it freezes my DAW and just sits there for a few minutes before showing the GUI. But if I allow it access, even just once, it loads without any issues. After that first load with or without/blocked acess, it still loads immediately in new instances.

Why is this the case?

I installed this just now and the interactive elements are in the wrong space compared to the PNG behind it. I tried resetting the window size using the option in the VST but it didnt fix the issue.

Im using 1920 x 1080 monitor, Windows 10, Studio One

https://imgur.com/a/nkBGhAS

This patch uses the correct MIDI channel so that releasing a note whilst others are held will assert pitch bend (and other controllers) to the next asserted note. Fixes bug #217.